Au Ashau Teretuhr
by CadetMcCann
Summary: Lieutenant Triplett just broke up with her first serious boyfriend and is comforted by the last person anyone expected could be a friendly shoulder to cry on. Terrible summary, sorry! Title means "They Love Together" according to the VLD, link inside.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm not sure about this one...it's my first serious fanfic so I'm nervous, but since I write for fun I don't have much reason to be I guess. This is an idea I've been tossing around in my head for awhile and finally just wrote it down when I was bored one day. I'd really appreciate a review to let me know what you guys think of this!**

**Link to the Vulcan Language Dictionary: ?cmd=search. This is where I found the translation for the title.**

**Let me know if I need to fix any editing stuff, I proofed it more than once but no one's perfect.**

**Disclaimer: I only own Lieutenant Triplett, all else is Mr. Roddenberry's and the VLD's.**

The doors to the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise swished open as Lieutenant Triplett entered and took her place at her consule. She looked as if she'd had a difficult day, and it was only 0600 hours. Her eyes were rimmed red and slightly puffy, her nose was blotchy, her hair not its usual sleek perfection and her uniform slightly askew.

Commander Spock glanced away from the front screen at her for a moment and felt a small twinge of concern. There probably wasn't anything he could do to help, but Captain Kirk had left him in charge while the captain took a landing party down to Xenos, the planet they were currently orbiting.

While he was gone, Spock was determined to be the best "captain" he could. "What would Jim do in this situation," he mused to himself. Thinking through the options and their possible outcomes, he made his decision and stood up.

"Sulu, you have the conn, I'll only be gone a short time. Lieutenant Triplett, follow me, I may be in need of your skills." Spock picoted and walked into the lift. Sulu and Chekov shot confused looks at each other, then shrugged and went back to work. They rarely understood the Vulcan commander.

Lieutenant Triplett stood up shakily and followed him into the lift. After the doors closed, Spock ordered, "Floor Three." Triplett glanced at him, puzzled, but he stood impassive, hands clasped behind his back. "What's on Floor Three?" she wondered.

Then, halfway between floors, Spock reached out and stopped the lift. Turning to face Triplett, he looked down at her face. Normally her eyes were a brilliant blue, but today they were muted, sad, he thought. She looked sad. And frightened. Of course, she had no idea why he had asked her to accompany him and, and he knew he intimidated some of the crew.

He paused, unsure how to proceed. "Are you… Is there something wrong, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"I um…no, I'm fine," she said quietly, facing straight ahead.

"Your chin is trembling," he stated calmly. Wasn't that a sign the human was close to tears? She put her face in her hands as her shoulders began to shake violently, muffled sobs still quite audible to his Vulcan ears. "Oh, now what to do?" he wondered. Tears and emotions made him very uncomfortable, and here was a considerable amount of both.

He reached out awkwardly to put his arms around her. He knew it was a way human males offered comfort. She didn't seem to notice the awkwardness as she turned toward him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she buried her face in his chest.

He froze for a second. Well, if it would help her…he relaxed. After all, the ship depended on the wellbeing of the crew, so the logical thing to do was comfort her, right? He began gently stroking her hair, he'd heard human females found it calming and pleasant.

After a few minutes, her sobbing fasded away and she came back to her senses. Blushing furiously she realized she was hugging and crying all over Commander Spock. The highly efficient First Officer that believed in never showing emotion. "Oh, God!" she thought. "He must be so disgusted!"

"Commander!" she exclaimed. "I didn't mean to, I swear I didn't! Please don't punish me!" Spock frowned slightly, unsure of her meaning.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Why, I got your uniform all wet, allowed my emotions to get the best of me, and hugged you!" she said.

"Oh." He understood now. "Forget about it, Lieutenant. Why don't you tell me what happened that made you so upset?" he requested. She looked at him with shock radiating from her.

"May I ask why you are interested, Commander?"

"For two reasons, Lieutenant. First, this ship depends on the wellbeing of its crew, both physical and emotional. Therefore, if something needs to be dealt with, either Captain Kirk or I should be informed. As the Captain is not on board the ship at the moment, logically the job falls to me. Second, I have often noticed that when humans are emotionally troubled they almost always find it reassuring to talk about it, to "cry on someone's shoulder" as you say. As you've already cried on me, I'm offering my services as a listener."

Triplett was staring at the floor, biting her lip. The Vulcan commander was offering his services as a confidante? She wondered if she was dreaming. Well, if it was a dream there was no harm in telling him, and she really did need to talk about it.

Sighing, she looked up into his startlingly dark eyes. "Lieutenant Jacobs and I broke up last night," she said quietly. His eyebrow raised just the tiniest bit.

"I wasn't aware you were seeing each other," he said.

"Yess, sir, for nearly a year and a half." She paused, but he said nothing, calmly waiting for her to continue. "It just wasn't working out for me," she said. "A lot of things weren't. He was so clingly and jealous and we were fighting every day and I finally realized it just wasn't worth it anymore." She wiped new tears off her face. "I feel so terrible for hurting him by ending it," she whispered.

"But if you did the right thing for yourself, then logically you have no reason to feel bad," he told her gently. More tears filled her eyes.

"I know," she sighed. "But you of all people should know that emotions are not logical." The corners of his mouth twitched upward slightly.

Then Triplett gagged and closed her eyes. He frowned, concerned again. He could see the outline of her jaw muscles against the skin on her face, she was clenching her teeth together so tightly. "You will not throw up on the Commander!" she ordered herself.

"Lieutenant, are you alright?" he asked sharply. "Are you in pain?" She shook her head and unclenched her jaw.

"No, no pain," she whispered.

"What happened?" he asked, still in the sharp voice.

"I just got so nauseous all of a sudden… And I feel so weak…" her voice trailed off as she fainted. Catching her before she hit the floor, Spock ordered the lift to the sickbay.

"What the hell, Spock?" McCoy spluttered when he entered with the unconscious Lieutenant in his arms.

Then he snapped into professional mode and began collecting equipment to run tests while he asked Spock what happened.

"We were talking, then she gagged and said she suddenly felt nauseous and weak, and then she lost consciousness," Spock told him.

"Huh. That could be a lot of different things…" McCoy said. "Here, help me with this scanner." They were running the tests when suddenly one of the scanners beeped. McCoy broke into a smile. "Well, there you have it, Spock, she's not sick at all."

"Are you certain, Doctor?" he was bewildered again.

"Quite. She has no illness."

"None? Then what's wrong with her?"

"Nothing, Spock, in fact she's in very good shape for a pregnant woman."

"Pregnant?" Spock raised one eyebrow.

"Yes, Spock, as in there is a human being growing in her uterus."

"I am aware of the definition of the diagnosis, Doctor." Spock was wondering if he should tell McCoy that the Lieutenant had just left her boyfriend the night before. He decided against it, knowing that their conversation in the lift was confidential unless the doctor absolutely needed to know. Well, this will complicate things, he thought to himself.

"Doctor, I will leave you to break the news to her when she wakes up, I need to be getting back to the bridge."

"Alright, Spock. Oh, and I'm keeping the Lieutenant off duty for the next few days, she needs to rest."

"Very well, Doctor." Spock left.


	2. Chapter 2

**Kind of a filler chapter, hope you like it! If anyone is actually reading this please review so I know if you like it, what you think should happen, suggestions, comments, criticisms, anything so I know you're out there that would be great! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek! Or the VLD, which is where I got the translation for the book title.**

Chapter2

After a few hours, Triplett began to wake up again. Hearing her moving around, McCoy groaned: He really hated having these kind of conversations with crew members. "Well, here goes," he muttered to himself and headed out of his office to see the Lieutenant sitting up on the biobed, stretching.

"Doctor, how did I get here?" she asked. "The last thing I remember is speaking to Commander Spock in the turbolift."

"I'm not surprised, you were quite out of it when he brought you in here," McCoy said quietly, mentally preparing himself to tell her the big news.

"Well, that is rather embarrassing," Triplett mused to herself. "So, what is the matter with me, Doctor?"

McCoy sighed. "You're pregnant, Lieutenant."

The blood drained from her face, leaving her whiter than the wall behind her. "You can't be serious," she whispered.

"I'm afraid I am, Lieutenant. There is no way the test results could be wrong."

She buried her face in her hands, nearly curling into a ball on the biobed. Doctor McCoy watched silently, wishing there was something he could do to help. However, he knew from experience it was better to wait this part out quietly, letting her come to terms with the situation in her own way. In a few minutes, she raised her head and looked at him. He could see fresh tear streaks coursing down her face.

"What am I going to do, Doctor?" she asked worriedly.

"Well, for starters, Lieutenant, how about you call me Leonard? We are going to be seeing an awful lot of each other over the next several months and I'd rather you used my first name. Second, I suggest you tell the father, they generally want to know and be involved even if they're only in the way most of the time."

"Oh...I don't know if I can tell him," Triplett's shoulders sagged and a new wave of tears made its appearance.

"I don't see why that would be a problem, unless Lieutenant Jacobs is not the father?"

"I didn't know you knew about us, Leonard," Triplett stumbled a little over using his name instead of his title.

"I know a lot more than I let on about the goings on of this ship. Why can't you tell him?" he pressed gently.

"I broke up with him last night," she stared hard at the floor, trying not to cry.

"Oh, I see. Well, the decision is yours, although you should tell him eventually, you know."

She bit her lip, thinking. "I know. I will eventually, I just have to think about this first." Doctor McCoy nodded.

"Fair enough," he said. "Now, I have taken you off duty for the next three days. You need rest, so I suggest you stay in your cabin most of the time."

"I would prefer to return to my shift, Leonard," Triplett frowned.

"No, Lieutenant, you must rest. You've had a huge emotional upset these last couple days and it's going to take a few days for you to be in tip-top shape again."

"Fine, if you insist," she sighed. "I'm going to head back to my cabin if there isn't anything else."

"You're fine for now, I'll let you know about your next check up soon," he watched her leave the sickbay. "Poor girl," he thought.

By the time Triplett reached her cabin again she was feeling tired. She decided to read for awhile and picked up her latest book from where she had left it on her bedside table the night before. It was one of the only ways she could distract herself from her thoughts; thoughts she most certainly did not want to think about right now.

Not long after she lay down to read she fell asleep with her head pillowed on the book. She was woken by someone knocking on her door a few hours later. Getting up to answer it, she discovered Commander Spock waiting outside her cabin. He stood in his familiar stance as he had in the turbolift, although he looked a good deal more relaxed now than he had then.

"Commander!" he was the last person she had expected to see outside her door. Well, okay, second to last, Lieutenant Jacobs was the last.

"May I come in, Lieutenant?" he asked politely.

"Oh, yes of course, I've forgotten my manners! Please come in, Commander." She stepped back to let him in. Unsure of what to do, she backed up until she reached her bed and sat down on it. Spock stepped inside and the doors swished shut behind him.

"May I ask why you are here, sir?" she looked at him, slightly nervous.

"I believe you have that right, Lieutenant," he bowed just slightly toward her. "The captain thought you might be wishing for something with which to entertain yourself while Doctor McCoy has you off duty. He insisted I check on you and suggested I bring you something to read."

"The captain knows I like to read?" Triplett hadn't realized quite how much the crew on the ship knew about each other's personal interests.

"Indeed, Lieutenant, he informed me you are quite the avid reader and implied I would find it a challenge to discover a book in the ship's library that you haven't yet read."

Lieutenant Triplett blushed. "I suppose that is true, I have read most of our books," she told him shyly. "So, am I to assume you took the captain's challenge to find a book I haven't read?" she couldn't resist teasing him a bit. She was very curious to see how he would react to it.

"I have not yet taken Captain Kirk's challenge as I am confident you will not have read this one," Spock informed her and brought a book out from behind his back, where she had assumed he was clasping his hands as he usually did. It was a beautiful old volume, well bound in leather with the traditional gold stamping across the cover and down the spine.

"What is it?" she asked him, curious about a book she was certain was not part of the ship's library.

"'Zahal-tor Khio'ri'" he told her. "It is a very popular volume of poetry among my people."

Triplett's eyes widened. Spock brought her a book of Vulcan poetry? Wow, what an incredible honor! "What does the title mean?" she wanted to know.

"Roughly translated into English, it means 'Follow Your Star'." he looked at her. "Are you familiar with the Vulcan language?"

"Not at all, I'm afraid," she blushed, embarassed to admit she knew nothing about his native tongue.

"In that case, I would be willing to translate these into English for you, if you wish to read them, or I will read them to you in their original language."

"Oh, I'd much prefer to hear them in the original language! Translations of poetry always leave something lacking, don't you agree?"

"Indeed, Lieutenant, although I have yet to come across anyone else who agreed with us."

"Yes, I suppose most people prefer to be able to understand the work instead of hearing it the way it was meant to be heard." Spock stared at her for a second, his eyes a shade warmer than they had been before. "What is it, Commander?"

"You have a very philosophical mind for a human being, Lieutenant," he said after a short pause.

"Please, Commander, call me Andy," she asked of him.

"Andy?" he questioned, one eyebrow raised slightly.

"Yes, sir, I would prefer it if you were to call me by my first name," she said, looking at the floor.

"I was under the impression Andy was a male name," he stated.

"It's a nickname, sir, my given name is Andrea."

"Ah. And you prefer not to be called Andrea?" he queried curiously.

"No, sir. It is too formal for my comfort." She laughed a little at herself.

"Ah. Well, as you wish," he paused. "Andy. Shall I begin?"

"Yes, please!" She settled back on her bed, excited to hear the poems he thought she'd enjoy. "Such a sweet thought from someone who supposedly has no emotion," she thought. "I wonder if the captain or Doctor McCoy suggested it to him?"

Spock sat down in the chair at her desk and turned to face her on the bed. "Are you comfortable, Andy?" he asked, saying her name slowly, as if he were getting used to saying it.

"Yes, thank you, Commander," she replied. With that, he opened the book and began to read.


End file.
